Task-01. What is the scope of E-Business.

Discuss the advantages & disadvantages of Better Sofa

E-business

Ebusiness is a term used to describe businesses run on the Internet, or utilizing Internet technologies to
improve the productivity or profitability of a business. In a more general sense, the term may be used to
describe any form of electronic business —- that is to say, any business which utilizes a computer. This
usage is somewhat archaic, however, and in most contexts ebusiness refers exclusively to Internet
businesses.

The most common implementation of ebusiness is as an additional, or in some cases primary, storefront.
By selling products and services online, an ebusiness is able to reach a much wider consumer base than
any traditional brick-and-mortar store could ever hope for. This function of ebusiness is referred to as
ecommerce, and the terms are occasionally used interchangeably.

Scope of e-business applications 

A specified targeted group of users of an extranet (like customers, partners etc.) Web Site Navigation
Analysis: This analysis allows site managers to analyze visitor behavior in a multitude of ways. 

Conversion Funnels: Define and measure the effectiveness of any custom-defined process, such as the
checkout process. Pinpoint and optimize areas with high drop-off or abandonment rates. 

Affinity Reporting: Affinity reports provide an easy way to understand trends and patterns among pages
and site content areas. The page-affinity report, for example, reveals the pages that are viewed by the
same visitors. It can even be used to detect the products that are often viewed by the same people. 

Event Sequence: Conduct advanced queries on navigational path data. Search criteria include page
sequences, entry and exit points, and the referral source of the traffic. Use this functionality to assess site
navigation scenarios. 

Robust E-Commerce Analysis: Robust E-Commerce Analysis provides powerful, real-time e-commerce

reporting to help e-commerce managers improve merchandising and increase sales. 

Merchandising: Get detailed reports on the effectiveness of your merchandising, including product

conversions within all stages of the shopping process, product cross-sell opportunities, and merchandising
analysis by category, brand, color and size. Increase your promotional expenditures on products with high
conversion rates and identify which products best respond to various types of promotions. 

Customer Lifetime Value: Get the lifetime value of your customers based upon their acquisition source,
and increase your expenditures on sources that generate the best customers over lifetime. 

Unique Customer Identifier: Extract the unique customer IDs associated with any report or segment of
your customers and follow up with targeted marketing campaigns to further increase retention. 

Powerful Campaign Analytics: Track the performance of all your online marketing initiatives, including
pay-per-click keyword buys, banner ads, e-mails and affiliate programs. *'s campaign auto-sensing
functionality enables you to measure all your marketing campaigns with little maintenance. You can also
use a variety of cost models, such as cost-per-click and cost-per-acquisition, depending on the campaign. 

Active Viewing Browser Plug-in: This intuitive visualization feature enables you to overlay key visitor
and customer statistics right on top of your Web site. This Microsoft Internet Explorer plug-in gives you a
unique perspective on how visitors interact with the design of your site. It provides detailed visual
information on the performance of your pages, individual links, site forms and flash movies so that you
can optimize your Web site towards the final goal of visitor conversion. 

Internal Search Tracking: Discover your most common internal search terms, including their
effectiveness at converting visitors into buyers. Fine-tune your messaging, merchandising and promotions
to better address your visitors' needs, while increasing site conversion by understanding what your visitors
are looking for. 

Detailed Content Analysis: Understand how visitors navigate through your site content, what pages they
view most frequently, and much more. WebSideStory’s allows you to analyze your site content in a
logical, hierarchical fashion that closely matches your business organization. For example, a sports site
may wish to analyze their content based on different sporting activities. 

Detailed Visitor Information: Visitors Examples include their geographic location, languages, site
behavior and much more. Use this information to tailor your site content to site visitors and increase
conversion. 

Executive Dashboards: Executive Dashboards provides the ability to include key performance indicators
(KPIs) within its interactive dashboards, providing users with the intelligence they need to make educated
decisions that significantly impact the success of their site. Examples of KPIs include conversion rate,
leads or transactions generated, shopping cart conversion rates and more. 

Powerful Custom Reports: The intuitive Report Builder. Plug-in allows you to easily import any
statistic directly into Microsoft Excel. Use Report Builder's robust capabilities to create custom reports
that are relevant to your business. 

Advantages of Electronic Commerce

The greatest and the most important advantage of e-commerce, is that it enables a business concern or in
this case Better Sofa to reach the global market. It caters to the demands of both the national and the
international market, as the business activities are no longer restricted by geographical boundaries. With
the help of electronic commerce, even small enterprises can access the global market for selling and
purchasing products and services. Even time restrictions are nonexistent while conducting businesses, as
e-commerce empowers one to execute business transactions 24 hours a day and even on holidays and
weekends. This in turn significantly increases sales and profit.

Electronic commerce gives the customers the opportunity to look for cheaper and quality products. With
the help of e-commerce, consumers can easily research on a specific product and sometimes. Shopping
online is usually more convenient and time saving than conventional shopping. Besides these, people also
come across reviews posted by other customers, about the products purchased from a particular e-
commerce site, which can help make purchasing decisions.

For Better Sofa, e-commerce significantly can cut down the cost associated with marketing, customer
care, processing, information storage and inventory management. It reduces the time period involved with
business process re-engineering, customization of products to meet the demand of particular customers,
increasing productivity and customer care services. Electronic commerce reduces the burden of
infrastructure to conduct businesses and thereby raises the amount of funds available for profitable
investment. It also enables efficient customer care services.

Disadvantages of Electronic Commerce

Electronic commerce is also characterized by some technological and inherent limitations which has
restricted the number of people using this revolutionary system. One important disadvantage of e-
commerce is that the Internet has still not touched the lives of a great number of people, either due to the
lack of knowledge or trust. A large number of people do not use the Internet for any kind of financial
transaction. Some people simply refuse to trust the authenticity of completely impersonal business
transactions, as in the case of e-commerce. Many people have reservations regarding the requirement to
disclose personal and private information for security concerns. Many times, the legitimacy and
authenticity of different e-commerce sites have also been questioned.

The time period required for delivering physical products can also be quite significant in case of e-
commerce. A lot of phone calls and e-mails may be required till you get your desired products. However,
returning the product and getting a refund can be even more troublesome and time consuming than
purchasing, in case if you are not satisfied with a particular product.

Thus, on evaluating the various pros and cons of electronic commerce, we can say that the advantages of
e-commerce have the potential to outweigh the disadvantages. A proper strategy to address the technical
issues and to build up customers trust in the system, can change the present scenario and help e-
commerce adapt to the changing needs of the world.

Task-02 Main features of internets, extranets and security

Internet

The Internet is a unique medium with global impact, and within a relatively few number of years has
become inextricably intertwined with the conduct of almost all human activity. The following sections
describe the key features of the Internet which have contributed to this world-wide success:

 Key Internet Features

o Geographic Distribution
o Robust Architecture
o Near Light Speed
 o Universal Access
o Internet Growth Rates
o The Digital Advantage
o Freedom Of Speech

 Key Web Features

o Ease Of Use
o Universal Access
o Search Capabilities

 Key Usenet Newsgroups Features

o Group Communications
o Common Space

 Key Email Features

o Email Is A Push Technology

o Email Waits For You
o Email Is One-To-Many
o Email Is Almost Free

 Key IRC Features

o Distributed Real-Time Communications

o Emergency Assistance

 Key MUD Features

o Virtual Space
o Extensibility

 Key Mailing List Features

o One-to-many communication.

Intranet

An intranet is a private computer network that uses Internet Protocol technology to securely share any

part of an organization's information or network operating system within that organization. The term is
used in contrast to internet, a network between organizations, and instead refers to a network within an
organization. Sometimes the term refers only to the organization's internal website, but may be a more
extensive part of the organization's information technology infrastructure. It may host multiple private
websites and constitute an important component and focal point of internal communication and
collaboration.
An intranet is built from the same concepts and technology used for the Internet, such as client–
server computing and the Internet Protocol Suite (TCP/IP). Any of the well known Internet protocols may
be found in an intranet, such as HTTP (web services), SMTP (e-mail), and FTP (file transfer protocol).
Internet technologies are often deployed to provide modern interfaces to legacy information systems
hosting corporate data. Intranets have also contrasted with extranets. While intranets are generally
restricted to employees of the organization, extranets may also be accessed by customers, suppliers, or
other approved parties. Extranets extend a private network onto the Internet with special provisions for
authentication, authorization and accounting 
Increasingly, intranets are being used to deliver tools and applications, e.g., collaboration (to facilitate
working in groups and teleconferencing) or sophisticated corporate directories, sales and customer
relationship management tools, project management etc., to advance productivity. Intranets are also being
used as corporate culture-change platforms. For example, large numbers of employees discussing key
issues in an intranet forum application could lead to new ideas in management, productivity, quality, and
other corporate issues.
In large intranets, website traffic is often similar to public website traffic and can be better understood by
using web metrics software to track overall activity. User surveys also improve intranet website
effectiveness. Larger businesses allow users within their intranet to access public internet through firewall
servers. They have the ability to screen messages coming and going keeping security intact.
When part of an intranet is made accessible to customers and others outside the business, that part
becomes part of an extranet. Businesses can send private messages through the public network, using
special encryption/decryption and other security safeguards to connect one part of their intranet to
another. Intranet user-experience, editorial, and technology teams work together to produce in-house
sites. Most commonly, intranets are managed by the communications, HR or CIO departments of large
organizations, or some combination of these.

Security:

Security has long been seen as a major sticking point in the adoption of Internet technology in the
enterprise. As networks have grown and connected to the Internet, the spectre of the hacker has haunted
managers responsible for both delivering information within the enterprise and to its partners, and
protecting it from unauthorized outsiders.

In fact, the security capabilities of the latest Internet and intranet technologies enable companies to
control the availability of information and the authenticity of that information better than ever before. The
increasing sophistication of both server and client software means that this unprecedented level of
security can be provided without requiring users to undergo complex and bureaucratic procedures to gain
legitimate access to sites.

Firewalls

For intranet developers, restricting access to the site has been the primary security concern. The simplest
way to achieve this is to position the internal site where it cannot be seen or accessed from the Internet at
large-behind a firewall. At their simplest, firewalls consist of software which blocks access to internal
networks from the Internet. While legitimate traffic such as email is allowed in to the mail server,
programs such as search engine spiders or FTP clients cannot access machines inside the safe boundary of
the firewall.
Firewalls also offer some protection to users venturing out from the network to the Internet, acting as
proxies to fetch web pages so that the name and IP number of machines on the network are not revealed
to web sites that they visit-preventing hackers from learning details of the structure of the network.

While the basic firewall remains a fundamental of Internet and intranet security, increasing levels of
sophistication are required by many users as access to the corporate intranet needs to be widened beyond
those physically present on the same network. Allowing users dial-up access behind the firewall violates
basic security principles; restricting them to the same access offered to the rest of the Internet in front of
the firewall denies them valuable services.

Web server security

Intranets and extranets are often constructed using Web servers to deliver information to users in a now-
familiar form.Username/password authentication has long been used as a mechanism for restricting
access to web sites. But because these character strings are themselves passed as clear text, capable of
being intercepted and read with simple network management tools, basic passwords do not adequately
secure communications.

A significant improvement can be achieved by encrypting communications between a browser and server.
The most common way of doing this is to establish a secure connection using a variation on HTTP (the
standard web protocol) called the Secure Sockets Layer(SSL). Increasingly, commercial web sites are
using SSL to guarantee the authenticity of the server and integrity of the data delivered to web site users,
and to protect visitors' responses to interactive elements on the site. Whenever you point your browser to
a URL that begins with https://, you are using SSL.

SSL has become fundamental to the spread of Internet commerce, and is being used for an increasing
range of transactions across the Internet. However, by default most SSL implementations in web
servers do not authenticate the client web browser. In its raw form, therefore, SSL is best suited to the
largely anonymous requirements of retailing.

Virtual private networks

One option for widening access is to set up a virtual private network (VPN) using the Internet. A VPN
uses software or hardware toencrypt all the traffic that travels over the Internet between two
predetermined end-points. This is an ideal solution where limited access to an intranet is required, for
example between two sites of the same company requiring access to the same corporate information, or
suppliers and customers integrating their supply chains.

A potential weakness of VPN solutions is their relative inflexibility. VPNs work well for creating fixed
tunnels from one known point to another, but they are less well suited to situations where access needs to
be given on-the-fly to groups of people not necessarily known at the outset, or who need to gain access
from a variety of locations. VPN technology at present works best for encrypting traffic between two
known points that are accepted as valid destinations for traffic: once a link has been established, the
technology is used to encrypt the information which is sent, not for establishing the validity of the
destination to which it is being sent.

As more flexible VPN access is required, the prime issue becomes that of authenticating potential
visitors to the site and the credentials that they present. Are they who they say they are, or an impostor?
With this capability it is possible to open up the system to provide access to a wider range of partners,
customers or suppliers.

Certification authorities

One solution for is to use a digital certificate-based solution. Users are given access based on their
possession of certificates signed or authorised for access by or on behalf of the server to which they wish
to gain access. The certificate acts as evidence of their digital identity. Certificates can also be combined
with other access control mechanisms, such as tokens (identification hardware carried by users) or only
accepting visitors from certain authenticated addresses.

At the moment this option is most easily achieved with a custom solution combined with a certification
authority (CA) server or external CA service, which can issue and revoke certificates and authenticate
any certificates presented in order to gain access. This can involve a simple implementation of a public
key infrastructure (PKI), a system which establishes a hierarchy of authority for the issuance and
authentication of certificates and users presenting them.

Digital certificates can provide a sophisticated means of controlling and monitoring access. The
certificate itself acts as a token for access control: the user must present it in order to gain access. In many
implementations this can be done automatically: in some implementations the certificate is stored on a
separate token such as a smart card which the user has to present to the local client in order for it to pass it
to the server to gain access.

Task-03 E-business opportunities for Better Sofa

Manage Information

E-business will allow Better Sofa to dynamically manage a constantly shifting flow of important
information. It can check your existing inventory, manage furniture standards, procure products within
these standards, produce a quote, create a budget, and view automated reports.

With E-business all important facilities information is available in a single, easy-to-access location.
Information that is normally time-consuming to track down will now be at your fingertips. Access to the
right information makes the difference between smooth operations, and stilted workflow.

Visualize Solutions

Collaboration has never been easier. Share design concepts, alert people to changes, and send project
information and drawings to members of Better Sofa team. You can also test concepts, review standards
and design “on the fly.” E-business creates a true visual experience for the end-user. These visual tools
can be used in a number of ways. When procuring new furniture solutions for the office, imagine being
able to fully examine every item, going just short of being able to actually touch it. 
Obtain Products and Services

E-business makes furniture procurement simple and cost-effective. E-business will be individualized for
Better Sofa, with the company’s visual standards, ergonomic standards, and contract pricing.. E-business
can integrate with major procurement providers. Check the status of company’s PO at any point in the
process.

Enforcing company standards promotes the use of highly ergonomic work tools, and ensures a
professional-looking work environment.

Reducing off-contract spending can produce great savings. The average company makes over 25% of its
purchases off-contract. Studies show that the price of goods paid for this ‘maverick’ spending is more
costly and makes it extremely difficult for organizations to track expenditures and manage corporate
assets. E-Business enforces better contract compliance, and greatly reduces costly maverick spending.

Selling goods online

E-commerce, or electronic commerce, is one subset of e- business. It involves buying and selling hard
goods, electronic goods or services over the Internet. What comes to mind when people think about doing
business on the Internet is good, old-fashioned trade. Selling goods online is probably the simplest way
Better Sofa can start an e-business. Depending on Better Sofa’s business plan, they can put up an online
store for a very small investment or they can spend millions.

Manage Assets

Most companies spend twice as much to manage their furniture assets as they do to buy it. Managing
corporate assets can help buyers understand what is in inventory before they make the decision to buy
new. Studies show inventory reuse can reduce expenses 25-50%.

With E-business, you can take inventory, track product condition, and locate product, whether it’s stored
at your workplace or in our high-tech Milpitas warehouse. Lower the life-cycle costs of your assets by
cleverly redeploying existing furniture inventory and updating the software related to inventory.

b) Discuss the 4 Stages of customer relationships in e-commerce and apply to Better Sofa.

The four stages of customer relationships in relation to e-commerce are:

Awareness

This is the first stage where customers recognize the name of the company or any of its products.
However, they have never interacted with the company before. A company/business can achieve this
level by properly advertising its brand.
Exploration

At the exploration stage the potential customers know more about the company or its products. For
instance, they may have visited the web site of the company and have exchanged any information with it.

Familiarity

At this stage, customers have completed several business transactions with the company and know its
policies regarding refund, privacy of information, discounts etc.

Commitment

Having completed a number of satisfactory transactions, some customers may have developed a strong
sense of loyalty or preference for the products or brand of a company. They are said to be at
the commitment stage in their relationship with a business. Such loyal customers often tell others about
their satisfaction as regards products/services offered by the company. Sometimes, companies make
concessions on price or other terms of business to bring customers into this stage.

The sum of a company’s customer service solutions constitutes its customer relationship

management (CRM) system. Level of traffic at the online business site and the available resources would
normally determine whether or not a business should have CRM. It provides fast and effective service to
customers and ensures that corrective measures are readily in place. CRM includes call handling, sales
tracking and Transaction support (technology/personnel etc.). Three tools can be used to improve
customer service, that is, log file analysis, cookies and data mining. Under CRM system, call centers can
be set up having customer service representatives who can be reached trough phone, e-mails
or online chatting. There are software tools or tracking devices that can provide feedback on how many
number of internet users actually viewed a banner or a marketing message and how many actually clicked
on the advertisement. Log files consist of data generated by site visits and include information about each
visitor’s location, IP address, time of visit, frequency of visits etc. There are businesses that provide the
services of analyzing web log files. The results would show how effective your web site is and indicate
the top-referring web sites. You know that cookies allow e-commerce sites to record visitor behavior.
They can be used to track customers online and do personalization. Many customers do not know that
their information is being collected and used by the e- business site. Thus, informational privacy rights of
customers can be breached in cases where cookies are used.
One major goal of CRM is to establish a long-lasting relationship between a company and its
customers. Good customer services can help in building a sense of loyalty towards company and its
products or services. Experts have pointed out five stages of loyalty as customer relationships develop
over a period of time. One can find that the intensity of relationship increases as the customer moves
through the first four stages
Task-04 Key features of designing a good website for Better Sofa

There are 2 aspects of a web design. Firstly, the visual presentation of a web page should be good so that
it attracts the user. Secondly, it should include all the necessary information for the non-human browsers.
Therefore, it can be said that a web design should fulfill the functional as well as the aesthetic
requirements.

Text

Background does not interrupt the text

Text is big enough to read, but not too big
The hierarchy of information is perfectly clear
Columns of text are narrower than in a book to make reading easier on the screen
 
Navigation

Navigation buttons and bars are easy to understand and use

Navigation is consistent throughout web site
Navigation buttons and bars provide the visitor with a clue as to where they are, what page of the
site they are currently on
Frames, if used, are not obtrusive
A large site has an index or site map
 
Links

Link colors coordinate with page colors

Links are underlined so they are instantly clear to the visitor
 
Graphics

Buttons are not big and dorky

Every graphic has an alt label
Every graphic link has a matching text link
Graphics and backgrounds use browser-safe colors
Animated graphics turn off by themselves
 
General Design

Pages download quickly

First page and home page fit into 800 x 600 pixel space
All of the other pages have the immediate visual impact within 800 x 600 pixels
Good use of graphic elements (photos, subheads, pull quotes) to break up large areas of text
Every web page in the site looks like it belongs to the same site; there are repetitive elements that
carry throughout the pages

A feature that is emphasized repeatedly by many designers is the tendency towards simplicity of design
and structure of a Web site. Achieving simplicity of design however is not as easy as it might sound. The
modern trend is towards a more minimalist interface and page layout, which facilitates ease of access to
the site and usability features. One of the reasons for this trend is that as the number of Web sites
proliferates at an even increasing rate, there is a need to create sites that have a clear and obvious message
and aim.

Simplicity of layout is therefore a characteristic that is evident in some of the best Web sites around. Very
often this refers to a simple one or two column structure. Pages are also read from top to bottom. The
days of the complex and involved site structure that requires time to figure out in order to navigate are
definitely outdated.

One of the main design principles that many Webmasters have lived by in recent years was that it was
wise to reduce the amount of scrolling necessary to view a page. However, the modern tendency is for a
centered orientation in Web design, rather than the previous left aligned, fixed-width layouts. Many top
modern sites have the content centered on the page, which often requires some scrolling. While excessive
scrolling is certainly not a good design characteristic, the modern view is that some scrolling is acceptable
when it is offset against the better use of white space and content that is situated around a central axis.
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Callaghan, J (2002). Inside Intranets & Extranets: Knowledge Management AND the

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